Summary: Yes, there may be a connection between your type of work and your mental health. In addition, demographic factors play a role in your overall mental health status.
Key Points:
- A study published recently examined 5 years of data from close to half a million people
- Researchers found associations between type of work and mental health, with people in specific industries showing higher levels of depression (MDD), frequent mental distress (FMD), and extreme mental distress (EXD) than others.
- Factors such as sex, age, race/ethnicity, education status, and health care coverage were associated with higher prevalence of mental health problems
- Among adults 18+, major depressive disorder was the most common mental health problem among the three measured in the study, followed by frequent mental distress and extreme mental distress
Your Work and Mental Health: Does the Industry You Work in Elevate Risk?
Around the U.S. and world, people pay more attention to mental health and related topics now than at any point in the past. The World Health Organization WHO) indicates that worldwide, around 280 million adults 18+ have depression. In the U.S., the National Institutes of Health (NIH) indicate that in 2023, 21.9 million adults 18+ had depression, while 15.2 million had depression with severe impairment. Rates of depression have increased slowly since around the year 2000, with notable increases in the U.S. since the 2020 pandemic.
Reasons for the increase in prevalence of depression diagnoses include:
- Increase in awareness around mental health/mental health treatment
- Decrease in stigma around mental health/mental health treatment
- Increase in quality of mental health treatment
- Increases in access to mental health treatment
- Increased public messaging about mental health and the importance of mental health treatment
Alongside the increase in the prevalence of mental health disorders such as depression and the increase in awareness of and access to mental health treatment, there’s also a growing awareness of the value of prioritizing mental health in the workplace and understand the connection between work and mental health.
Work and Mental Health: Are Mental Health Problems Higher in Some Industries Than Others?
Yes, they are.
In June 2025, a group of researchers conducted a study called “US Workers’ Self-Reported Mental Health Outcomes by Industry and Occupation” designed to answer this simple question:
Does mental health among adult workers vary by industry and occupation?
The researchers used data from a nationwide survey of 469,129 workers collected between 2015 and 2019 called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). In this large set of publicly available data, published annually by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the research team focused on answers on the following topics:
- Diagnosis of depression (MDD)
- Mentally unhealthy days (MUD)
- Frequent mental distress (FMD)
- Presence of extreme distress (EXD)
Survey results were divided by industry/occupation, and analyzed for the impact of the following factors on mental health outcomes:
- Sex
- Age
- Race/ethnicity
- Education
- Coupled status
- Health care coverage status
For depression, researchers used answers to the question:
“Has a doctor, nurse, or other health professional ever told you that you have a depressive disorder (including depression, major depression, dysthymia, or minor depression)?”
To gauge mentally unhealthy days (MUD), researchers used answers to this question:
“Now thinking about your mental health, which includes stress, depression, and problems with emotions, for how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?
Researchers defined frequency of mental distress (FMD) as a MUD score of over 14 and extreme distress as a MUD score of 30, based on a scale of 0-30, corresponding to the days in a month.
In this article, we’ll share the data on prevalence of these mental health problems – MDD, FMD, and EXD – by industry or type of work, but not the data on prevalence by each occupation. That will save you from data overload, and give us the basic information we need to understand the connection between work and mental health.
Let’s take a look at what the research team found.
Data on Work and Mental Health by Industry/Type of Work, 2015-2019
We’ll report the findings on depression (MDD), frequent mental distress (FMD), and extreme mental distress (XMD), but not mentally unhealthy days (MUD), as findings for FMD and XMD imply the size of the findings for MUD.
In the study, the researchers identified an industry/type of work to serve as the reference point for work and mental health for each category: workers in public administration serve as the mean benchmark, with percentages above those workers consider above the national benchmarks, and percentages below those workers as below the national benchmark for that specific mental health problem.
Important note: this survey only included civilian employees in non-emergency, non-police, and non-military occupations.
Work and Mental Health: Depression
Depression, total among all industries/types of work assessed: 14.2%
Depression by industry/type of work:
Benchmark Value: 13.2%
- Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing/Hunting: 9.3%
- Mining: 6.7%
- Oil and gas: 10%
- Utilities: 8.2%
- Construction: 8.9%
- Manufacturing: 12.2%
- Retail: 17.7%
- Transportation: 11.2%
- Information: 15.1%
- Finance/insurance: 13.9%
- Real estate: 12.3%
- Professional, technical, science: 14.0%
- Management: 12.5%
- Administration: 13.8%
- Education: 15.6%
- Health care/social assistance: 18.2%
- Arts & Entertainment: 17.2%
- Accommodation/food service: 18.4%
The industries/types of work with highest prevalence of depression include:
- Accommodation/food service: 18.4%
- Health care/social assistance: 18.2%
- Retail sales: 17.7%
- Arts/entertainment: 17.2%
- Education: 15.6%
Next, we’ll share the data on frequent mental distress (FMD).
Work and Mental Health: Frequent Mental Distress (FMD)
Frequent mental distress (FMD) total among all industries/types of work assessed: 9.6%
FMD by industry/type of work:
Benchmark Value: 7.7%
- Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing/Hunting: 7.2%
- Mining: 10.2%
- Oil and gas: 10.0%
- Utilities: 7.3%
- Construction: 8.5%
- Manufacturing: 8.6%
- Retail: 12.5%
- Transportation: 9.1%
- Information: 10.0%
- Finance/insurance: 8.2%
- Real estate: 9.0%
- Professional, technical, science: 8.1%
- Management: 16.5%
- Administration: 11.0%
- Education: 7.8%
- Health care: 9.8%
- Arts & Entertainment: 11.0%
- Accommodation/food service: 14.8%
The industries/types of work with highest prevalence of FMD include:
- Management: 16.5%
- Accommodation/food service: 14.8%
- Retail sales: 12.5%
- Arts/entertainment and Administration: 11.0%
- Mining: 10.2%
Next, we’ll share the data on extreme mental distress (XMD).
Work and Mental Health: Extreme Mental Distress (XMD)
Extreme mental distress (EXD), total among all industries/types of work assessed: 4.1%
XMD by industry/type of work:
Benchmark Value: 2.9%
- Agriculture/Forestry/Fishing/Hunting: 3.5%
- Mining: 6.3%
- Oil and gas: 5.7%
- Utilities: 3.7%
- Construction: 4.1%
- Manufacturing: 3.7%
- Retail sales: 5.3%
- Transportation: 4.1%
- Information: 4.1%
- Finance/insurance: 3.1%
- Real estate: 3.3%
- Professional, technical, science: 3.3%
- Management: 4.4%
- Administration: 5.9%
- Education: 2.9%
- Health care: 4.3%
- Arts & Entertainment: 4.6%
- Accommodation/food service: 6.8%
The industries/types of work with highest prevalence of XMD include:
- Accommodation/food service: 6.8%
- Mining: 6.3%
- Administration: 5.9%
- Oil and gas: 5.7%
- Retail sales: 5.3%
Those are the basic prevalence facts and figures for MDD, FMD, and XMD. Now let’s look at how demographic factors influence the prevalence rates within each category of mental health problems we report on above.
Demographic Factors, Work, and Mental Health: What Affects Prevalence?
Data from the study show that among all workers, the factors most robustly associated with having one (1) or more of the mental health problems analyzed in this study included sex, age, race/ethnicity, education, and health care coverage.
Here’s the data for each demographic category.
Sex/Gender: Effect on Work and Mental Health
Females reported double the frequency of depression, compared to males, and higher rates of FMD and XMD.
- Depression:
- Female: 19.5%
- Male: 9.5%
- FMD:
- Female: 11.6%
- Male: 8.0%
- XMD:
- Female: 4.8
- Male: 3.4%
Next: the impact of age.
Age: Effect on Work and Mental Health
Younger people reported an increased frequency of mental health problems compared to older people, with those under 35 showing greatest prevalence, and prevalence rates in each mental health metric decreasing with age. We’ll use MDD as an example, since FMD and XMD follow a near-identical pattern.
- Depression by age group:
- 18-34: 16.9%
- 35-44: 14.0%
- 45-54: 12.6%
- 55-64: 12.3%
- 65+: 10.0%
Next: the impact of race and ethnicity.
Race and Ethnicity: Effect on Work and Mental Health
Non-Hispanic white people showed the greatest prevalence of depression (MDD), non-Hispanic black people reported the greatest prevalence of frequent mental distress (FMD) and extreme mental distress (EXD). We’ll share the data on FMD as an example. With the exception of non-Hispanic white people reporting depression, the data on FMD outlines the general impact of race and ethnicity on mental heath problems in the various occupations.
- FMD by race/ethnicity:
- Hispanic: 9.8%
- Non-Hispanic Black: 10.3%
- Non-Hispanic White: 9.6%
- Non-Hispanic Other: 8.1%
Next: the impact of educational attainment.
Educational Attainment: Effect on Work and Mental Health
People with some college or technical school reported the greatest prevalence of depression, and people without a high school diploma reported the greatest prevalence of frequent and extreme mental distress. We’ll use the data on FMD as an example. With the exception of depression among people with some college or technical school, the data on FMD describes the general pattern of impact educational attainment has on mental health problems:
- FMD by level of education:
- Less than high school diploma: 12.2%
- High school diploma or equivalent: 11.1%
- Some college or technical school: 10.7%
- College diploma or beyond: 6.8%
Finally, researchers noted the following:
- Being part of a couple, i.e. married or in an unmarried couple, was associated with reduced rates of MDD, FMD, and EXD compared to not being in a couple.
- People without health care coverage reported the greatest prevalence of FMD and EXD:
- 6% for FMD and 6.7% for XMD, respectively, compared to benchmarks of 7.7% and 2.9%, respectively.
- Rates of depression among people with and without health care coverage were almost identical, at 14.1% and 14.3%, respectively
That last finding foregrounds the fact that a clinical MDD diagnosis requires formal assessment by a mental health professional or primary care doctor, a service often inaccessible to people without health care coverage.
We’ll close with a brief discussion of the broad implications of this study and the data and information we present above.
Work and Mental Health: What You Know Matters
The more information we have about mental health, the better we can help our patients. And the more information our patients have about mental health, the better they can recognize what they need to heal, and/or recognize they need to heal, at all.
If you have depression, days of frequent mental distress, or days of extreme mental distress, we encourage you to review the results and consider the idea that your industry, i.e. your type of work, may have an impact on your mental health. One thing we know is that mental health affects everyone. Here’s an observation from the study authors:
“It is notable that the industries and occupations with the highest prevalences of depression, FMD, and extreme distress are diverse, including groups that do manual labor work and those that do professional work.”
In that way, we can see that mental health, like overall health, is an equalizer: young, old, rich, not rich, college educated, high school educated – anyone can develop depression, have frequent mental distress, or experience extreme mental distress. That’s one reason we prioritize family mental health and community menta health: many communities in the U.S. are diverse, and we believe everyone deserves the best mental health care available.
One last thing before we close: you may notice that heavily male occupations like those in construction, mining, and the oil and gas industry showed lower overall rates of depression, FMD, and XMD. You may also know – or are about to learn – that males in those industries show the highest suicide rates of all industries: see the data here and here.
We point this out for two reasons:
- It’s important to understand any data about people in its human context
- We still have a long way to go in reducing stigma around mental health and mental health treatment among specific demographics.
In this study, we point out males in traditionally male-dominated industries, but we may – upon reflection – find confounding circumstances in the other sets of data, too. That’s why we’ll always apply and report scientific data in context and from a practical, human perspective, which helps us – and our patients – learn the things they need to learn in order to grow and thrive in recovery.
Gianna Melendez
Jodie Dahl, CpHT